The highest-rated products of 2013 (pictures)

Of all the new wearable gadgets, smart light bulbs, TVs, decked-out cars, and other consumer electronics we reviewed this year, these are the ones that truly stood out.

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Panasonic TC-P55ST60

We review hundreds of products each year. In CNET offices across the country, our expert editors spend countless hours testing everything from smart light bulbs and coffee makers to budget tablets and high-performance gaming laptops. Among all those products, we've found some real duds -- and some true gems. Here we've rounded up the consumer tech products that received the highest overall ratings and those that received our coveted Editors' Choice award in the past year.

We begin with the only TV to ever receive a perfect 5-star rating. This series of Panasonic plasmas -- with its deep black levels, accurate colors, and strong performance in less-than-perfect conditions -- won our strongest recommendation for a TV ever. There's just one problem: earlier this year Panasonic announced it's getting out of the plasma game. So if you want to take advantage of this great buy, you'll need to do it fast.
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Editors' Rating

Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 2 Pro

We already loved the original Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga, with its clever fold-back laptop-turned-tablet design. But this year's model managed to do even better with an ultrahigh-res 13.3-inch display. Anyone looking for a thin, light laptop in the $1,000 price range would do well to consider the Yoga 2 Pro.
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Google Nexus 7

Put simply, the Nexus 7 is the best small tablet you can buy. It has a gorgeous screen, excellent gaming performance, and since it's a Google-branded tablet, it'll always be first in line for the latest version of Android.
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iPad Mini with Retina Display

It's amazing to think that, just a year ago, the iPad Mini was positioned as a smaller, cheaper, less powerful iPad. In the time since, the smaller iPad has become a true top-tier tablet, with a 2,048x1,526-pixel Retina Display that's exactly the same resolution as the larger iPad, and a far faster 64-bit A7 CPU that parallels what's in the iPhone 5S and iPad Air.
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HTC One

As a company, HTC had aprettytough2013. But the HTC One was a bright spot in the Taiwanese manufacturer's year. When CNET editor Brian Bennett reviewed it earlier this year, he called it "the fastest, most beautiful phone [he'd] ever used."
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Dell XPS 27

Desktop PCs don't get the same kind of attention as tablets, phones, and modern-style hybrid laptops. But manufacturers have made great strides in the desktop realm, and today's tabletop PCs are a fry cry from the old beige towers of yore. The Dell XPS 27 is well-built, easy to use, and can capably serve as the central hub for household computing, or as a one-stop entertainment device.
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Editors' Rating

Samsung Galaxy S4

Compared to the gorgeous HTC One and iPhone 5, the Samsung Galaxy S4 leaves something to be desired on the design front. But its blazing quad-core processor, colorful 5-inch HD screen, sharp-shooting 13-megapixel camera, and mile-high stack of software extras make the Galaxy S4 the most powerful superphone anywhere in the world. This phone has just about everything for just about everyone.
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Motorola Droid Maxx

The battery life of Motorola's Droid Maxx isn't its only great feature, but it is the thing that sets it apart from an increasingly crowded market of well-built, nicely designed, high-performing smartphones.
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Editors' Rating

Nest Protect

It's hard to make a smoke detector cool. But Nest gave the ubiquitous old smoke alarm a tech makeover this year, including Wi-Fi connectivity and app support in its Protect smoke detector.
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Synology DiskStation DS1513+

The five-bay Synology DiskStation DS1513+ would be overkill for many people. But it is an excellent storage system that could be a game-changer for consumers and small or medium-size businesses looking for a server upgrade.
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Padcaster

It might seem ridiculous to some of us, but plenty of iPad owners do use their tablets to take pictures and shoot movie clips. If you're in that camp, the Padcaster case might be a worthy purchase.
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